"I was once in a little town where many people were getting what you call 'converted'. Indeed, I was within the toss of a coin of being converted myself! It must have been what is called 'mass hysteria', and it all passed off again. I have never been troubled with such feelings since.”
So said a fashionable lady to her dinner partner, an officer in the army, who was as gay and thoughtless as herself. How sad, to be so close to such rich blessing, and yet to miss it! If that woman ever enters eternal perdition, what unutterable remorse will the memory of those flippant words bring her!
"Within the toss of a coin of being converted!" Whatever her words may have really meant, they left the heart-saddening impression that she had at some time been among the "almost persuaded;" but there had been no real work of grace wrought in her soul.
Felix "trembled," but it only made him desire to get away from the searching light of God's truth— "judgment to come." "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." These were words which made only too apparent his true condition. We are not told that he ever "trembled" again under the Word of God, or ever found "the convenient season" he presumed upon.
Near to the door, and the door stood wide;
Close to the port, but not inside;
Almost persuaded to give up sin,
Almost persuaded to enter in;
Almost persuaded to count the cost,
Almost a Christian, and yet lost.
A man, now a Christian, was once as near to damnation as the lady just spoken of was near to salvation. He had spent his substance and was down to his last coin. How should he spend that? He was despairingly miserable at the moment, and was seeking to find a short way out of it. "Oh, yes," whispered his old master, Satan. "You have just enough to pay the bridge-toll. Pay the fee, and jump from the bridge into the river below. That will end your misery.”
Obeying the suggestion, he paid his solitary coin. The center of the bridge was reached. Now for it! End your misery! "But wait," whispered another voice; "will it end your misery? 'After death the judgment'. Jumping into the jaws of death will not end your misery.”
That was enough. He fled from the bridge. God had spoken; his precious soul was ultimately saved, and today he is a rejoicing Christian.
Truly, if we may use the words of that deluded woman, he was literally within the "toss of a coin" of eternal damnation. Through God's grace, he missed it, and his old master, Satan, missed him. Thrice happy man!
Are you aware, unsaved reader, that you are getting perilously near—not, perhaps, to your last cent, but to your last gospel opportunity? Have you yet seen nothing in Christ to attract you? Nothing in your own deep need to drive you to Him? Well, remember, as a general rule, people die as they live; and that salvation missed is damnation reached. If you continue in your sin, earth once left is heaven forever lost.
Are you longing for deliverance, sighing for peace?
The precious blood of Christ is all you need to purge that guilty upbraiding conscience. His changeless love will satisfy the cravings of your aching heart.
"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2.
"Be it known unto you... that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." Acts 13:38, 39.
"Almost persuaded;" come, come today;
"Almost persuaded;" turn not away,
Jesus invites you here,
Angels are lingering near,
Prayers rise from hearts so dear;
O wanderer, come!
"Almost persuaded," harvest is past!
"Almost persuaded;" doom comes at last!
"Almost" cannot avail;
"Almost" is but to fail!
Sad, sad, that bitter wail—
"Almost"— but lost.
"Not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with the precious blood of Christ.”
1 Peter 1:18.